Courses

We provide all of the our materials free of charge, to anyone who is interested in using our lesson plans or student workbooks. We work hard to provide a "curriculum-in-a-box" experience, but a curriculum based on 20 years’ research has a lot of
moving parts! Spend some time with our master trainers, and take your game to the next level by
attending a Bootstrap workshop!

Recommended for all ages

Our Hour of Code lesson is a great, self-paced activity to introduce students to Bootstrap. Students explore simple function composition and order of operations, and then build on that knowledge to create simple computer graphics.

Recommended for: Grades 7-10

Bootstrap:Algebra applies mathematical concepts and rigorous programming principles to creating a simple videogame, and is aligned to National and State Standards for Mathematics -- including the new standards for Mathematical Practice! Students create a simple, 3-character game involving a player, a target and a danger. They design what each character looks like, and use algebraic concepts to detect collisions, handle keystrokes, and determine how they move and interact.

Mathematics

Word Problems

Coordinate planes

Order of Operations

Variables

Functions

Input/Output Tables

Domain and Range

Function Composition

Inequalities in the Plane

Piecewise Functions

Pythagorean Theorem

Number lines

Programming

Recommended for: Grades 8-11

Bootstrap:Reactive goes deeper into programming, building events and data structures on top of the foundation laid by our intro course and allowing students to build far more sophisticated programs. We've listed the breakdown of concepts in the table below, so you can find the best fit for your class.Students learn how the world-based event loop that drives their Bootstrap:Algebra game works, and use it to create animations using simple datatypes for their world. They then learn about data structures, and design a World structure for a sophisticated game of their own design.

Mathematics

Complex functional relationships

Exploring Randomness

Connections to Trigonometry

Programming

Recommended for: Grades 7-10

What makes your favorite athlete the Greatest of All Time? How would you determine the most successful musician ever? How is the population of your country changing? Answering these questions involves collecting and manipulating data, from sports stats to record sales to census data. Our Data Science module teaches students to view programs as questions we ask of data. Students form their own questions about the world around them, and learn how to analyze data critically and carefully to find answers. Business, science, and history teachers can utilize this module to help students make inferences from data. Math teachers can use this module to introduce foundational concepts in statistics. It also works great as a module for AP CS Principles' unit on data!

Recommended for: Grades 9-10

Our Physics module helps students understand basic physics concepts by incorporating computer programming as one of the key tools for building models of the physical world. Targeted to ninth grade, during which every student is expected to take science, this initiative is designed to spark students’ interest in subjects related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for the rest of their academic careers. This initiative also combats a root cause of inequality of opportunity in pursuing STEM careers: disparate access to quality teaching in middle and high school. The module is aligned to the Physics First course, allowing teachers to easily embed computational modeling in their physics classes.

Support

Training is just the beginning. It's the night before class, and you have a question - where do you turn? Hundreds of Bootstrap teachers across the globe are part of our discussion forum, and provide thoughtul answers about content, pedagogy and curriculum. Teachers can also search the forum for similar questions, and learn from previous conversations. Our own staff monitors the forum 24x7, and we guarantee a response with 24 hours.

For our district partners, we offer follow-up site visits and even regular, videoconferencing office hours. Contact us to learn more, or to set up a partnership with your district.

Software

Bootstrap uses WeScheme and Pyret, cloud-based IDEs that require no downloading or installation. Anyone with a Gmail account can start coding, storing and retrieving files from the cloud. Bootstrap programs can be shared simply by sending out a link, or posting it to sites such as Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, etc.

No internet access? Bootstrap also supports DrRacket, a multi-platform graphical environment. DrRacket runs on all major platforms (Windows, OS X, Unix/Linux) and programs written for one platform run seamlessly on the others, supporting a wide variety of classroom and home computing scenarios. Its emphasis on beginner-friendly features and support for images makes it ideal for Bootstrap.

Accessibility

A tool designed for learning should be accessible to all students. We work hard to ensure that our software environments are compatible with screen-readers on popular operating systems, and are a Development Partner of the AccessCSforAll Alliance.

After Bootstrap

If you've completed the entire Bootstrap curriculum, you'll be happy to know that your class can move on to advanced material, without needing to learn a new language! Here are just a few of the options available to Bootstrap teachers:

Picturing Programs focuses heavily on images and animation, as students explore recursion, lists, trees and algorithms -- all using the same language and Design Recipe they've learned in Bootstrap.

How to Design Programs is a textbook aimed at more college-level audiences, going beyond the material covered in Picturing Programs. HtDP is currently in its second edition, and the material is being actively updated.